BERKELEY, California – A 17-0 second-half run helped send the Pepperdine men's basketball team to an 87-71 defeat in its season opener at California on Tuesday night.
 
The Waves (0-1) and Golden Bears (1-0) were locked in a close battle for the first 25 minutes but Pepperdine went scoreless for five minutes and Cal heated up.
 
BIG WAVES

• Junior guard Colbey Ross (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) hit his season averages from last year, getting team highs of 19 points and seven assists. Seventeen of his 19 points came in the first half.
• Sophomore forward Kessler Edwards (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Etiwanda HS) scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half. He went 4-for-5 on three-pointers.
• Junior guard Skylar Chavez (Woodacre, Calif./Drake HS/Santa Rosa JC) scored 13 points in his debut and made three three-pointers.

KEY STATS 

• Cal shot 57.4% for the game (71.4% in the second half), while the Waves were at 37.1% in each half.
• The Waves won the turnover battle, committing nine to the Golden Bears' 12, and had a 17-11 edge in points off turnovers.
• Both teams made 10 three-pointers, but Cal did it in 19 attempts and the Waves took 29.
• California put four players in double-figures, led by Matt Bradley's 25 points on 8-for-11 shooting and 5-for-7 on three-pointers.

PLAY BY PLAY
 
The Waves led a few times early and took an 11-9 advantage after seven minutes, but the Golden Bears went on a 9-0 run to go in front by seven at 18-11. Ross scored the next four points to start an 11-4 run, tying the game at 22 on a lay-up by sophomore center Victor Ohia Obioha (Owerri, Nigeria/Hillcrest HS) with 6:44 left. A four-point play by Chavez that included a Cal flagrant foul on his fast-break lay-up put the Waves ahead 26-24 with 6:10 left.
 
At 29-28, Ross scored six straight points to give the Waves their largest lead of the game at 35-28. Cal ended the half on a 7-2 run to cut Pepperdine's lead to 37-35 at halftime.
 
A Kessler Edwards dunk made it 49-46 with 14:35 left, but those were the last Pepperdine points for nearly five minutes. Cal rattled off 17 points in the meantime, the last six on a pair of three-pointers by Bradley, giving the Golden Bears a 63-49 lead with 10 minutes left. The Waves got no closer than 10 the rest of the way.
 
NOTABLES 

• Four of the five Waves in the starting lineup were regulars last year, while Chavez got the start in his Pepperdine debut.
• Three more newcomers saw action for the Waves for the first time: freshman guard Sedrick Altman (Rialto, Calif./Colony HS), junior guard Keith Smith (Seattle, Wash./Rainier Beach HS/Oregon) and freshman forward Jan Zidek (Prague, Czech Republic).
• Ross raised his career assist total to 425. He's now one behind Amadi Udenyi (426) for fourth place on the Waves' all-time list, and 69 behind Jeremy Major's school record (494).

UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine has its home opener on Saturday (Nov. 9) at 5 p.m. against UC Irvine.